POLITICIANS HURTING STATE BY PENALIZING MILLIONAIRES

To the benefit of his fellow Californians, at least for the moment, Phil Mickelson is a taker. As one of the world’s premiere strikers of a little white ball, he takes in millions from multinational corporations that use his status to promote their products globally and pay him handsomely for the privilege. He, in turn, pays a king’s ransom in state income taxes for the privilege of living in the Golden State.

But with the riches of Croesus comes the freedom of voting with your feet or, in Phil’s case, private jet. With a jet comes convenience and a plethora of fungible options. Live in Austin, pay no state income tax and be in San Diego in the time it takes to play nine holes. Heck, build your family estate in Incline Village and it’s driver/wedge to the border. Pay for all the jet fuel your Gulfstream can guzzle and have millions left over from a state income tax rate of zero in both Nevada and Texas. That is obviously not a simple option for 99.99 percent of Californians but it is a choice for Phil and the likely $8 million or so in annual state income tax that he pays on his estimated $60 million in annual income.

What is truly astonishing is what it will take for the state to potentially replace Phil’s $8 million in taxes if he decides to take a one-way trip to a more favorable tax destination. My research indicates that a single Californian earning $50,000 annually with minimal deductions will pay roughly $1,800 in state income tax. Hence, it would take the combined total of over 4,400 California wage earners in this bracket to pay the tax that Phil may not be paying in the near future if he exercises the not-so-unreasonable judgment in departing for less-punitive fairways. You read correctly, 4,400 wage earners will pay a cumulative tax that equals that of just one taxpayer that gets paid to play a game most devotees pay handsomely to play.

Put another way, if the starting team for the San Francisco 49ers each made the equivalent of Phil, you could fill the entire Los Angeles Coliseum with average wage earners, peanut vendors included, and their cumulative state tax bill wouldn’t equal the 22 guys on the field at kickoff.

Unlike the on course adulation Phil garners across the globe, certain California politicians, in all their brilliance, decided that the state’s bloated budget would best be balanced by further penalizing those who make the gold in the Golden State. Tax anything enough and you will get less of it. Combining the newly imposed state income tax increase with bumps at the federal level is certain to give you fewer millionaires willing to pay the exorbitant taxes that are imposed here.

While it took Phil’s public relations team about a day to convince him to publicly recant his supposedly ill-communicated frustrations, the shot he took at California tax predators in his now famous news conference will be remembered far more than any on course shot he has ever taken. As a highly revered and highly visible public figure, he only said what every other California million-dollar earner is thinking. The Sacramento pinheads who initiated the tax increasing ballot initiative are in full self-delusion mode if they think otherwise. Do they really think Phil’s No. 1 on-course nemesis, Tiger Woods, left his native state upon turning pro for Florida’s humidity?

With wealth comes flexibility and access to creature comforts no matter where you call home. As California will soon discover, it won’t be U-Hauls on the back of station wagons heading east on Interstate 8. It will be the likes of Phil and others of his kind waving a reluctant but understandable goodbye from the comforts of the leather seats on private jets that are not equipped with rearview mirrors. It is sad to say but go east, young man, go east!